Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney

Years after it was announced. Years after I bought a 3DS in no small part to play this game. At long last, it arrived, and not as a mere eStore exclusive, either.

And in combining two of the original DS’ surprize hit series in a single game, Capcom and Level 5 have managed to make a masterpiece that combines the best elements of each while shoving aside their shortcomings.

It was no easy task, with the game’s bonus features describing how development literally came to blows between the companies’ workers. But their just as literal blood, sweat and tears weren’t for nothing, as this game will probably need to stand up as both series’ swan song for their North American fans (while Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney was released in Japan before Ace Attorney 5, the latter beat the former to North America by almost a whole year).

While the art design is totally Ace Attorney, the story is pure Layton. The professor, Luke, Wright and Maya Fey (man, it’s good to see Maya again; each new game in the series had less and less of her.) start off with a relatively normal mystery investigation involving an old student and a girl he rescued named Espella (for Hershel and Luke) and the ensuing court battle following Espella’s escape (for Phoenix and Maya). At the end of their respective tasks, both duos are mysteriously kidnapped and taken to an isolated town centuries behind the times: Labyrinthia.

In this place, magic appears to be real, and a string of murders involving witchcraft have lead to trials and burnings. And all the events of the town seem to be preordained by a mysterious figure known as the Storyteller. Professor Layton gets to work solving the mystery of this town, the appearance of witchcraft and the story, while Phoenix Wright works to keep the Espella from being sent to the fire.

Mechanically speaking, Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney takes half of a Layton game and half of a Phoenix Wright game, and melds them together within the story. Specifically, this game retains the courtroom showdowns from Ace Attorney, but jettisons the investigation sections in favor of Professor Layton-style exploring and puzzle solving. This had some interesting effects.

While I used to be a big fan of Layton games, they weren’t without their warts. Many puzzles were awkwardly placed without any segway whatsoever beyond “this reminds me of a puzzle” that often would be completely unrelated. By the end of the game, solving the 150 or so puzzles had taken its toll on me. I never once did bonus or downloaded puzzles because I just was not interested whatsoever after gorging on the ones scattered throughout the main game.

But with Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney’s half-and-half structure, there were only 70 puzzles in the main game and 12 bonuses. Almost all had topical segues and themes. However, most of them tended to be easy, if not by the difficulty of the puzzle itself, then by the way they were set up; almost all of the puzzles in this game did not require you to examine the clues submit an answer, rather, they mostly involved interacting with the puzzle until you’ve manipulated it into a solved state. There were no math puzzles whatsoever. Still, this emphasis on spatial puzzles helped make the game more breezy… though the More Chalices! puzzle was just about the hardest I’ve ever encountered.

Even though I found the puzzle sections more enjoyable, I must admit to falling into the old pattern of my Phoenix Wright games: the court scenes were the “good parts,” and more or less the only place you’ll find AA gameplay. In the Layton-themed exploration portion of the game, you’ll almost never get a chance to converse to witnesses before the trials, and you’ll be doing precious little crime scene investigation. Filling the Court Record is mostly done live, with the knights dumping most of the evidence into the trial to go along with whatever points of interest you happened to notice prior to the crimes.

With each new AA game comes a new gimmick for the courtroom with all previous gimmicks forgotten. This time around is the interesting mechanic of multiple witnesses taking the stand at once, and the ability to switch witnesses in the middle of pressing for more information to hear related new testimony.

This new gimmick also allows our ace attorney to raise objections when their testimonies directly contradict each other. Sadly, this aspect of the gimmick is used only at predetermined point in each of the Labyrinthia trials, so it’s more of a showpiece that indicates the end is near.

Still, the court battles can jog jam when you’ve figured out what to do next, but cannot figure out which of many related pieces of evidence the game wants you to use on which of many related pieces of testimony. Fortunately, in times like that, a refugee from Layton’s half of the game has come through to end this long-standing issue: hint coins. Use one, and the game will grey out half of your evidence or indicate when to use it.

The sound design is wonderful, with both Layton and AA sounds used in the appropriate game sections; for example, saving in court will use the AA save jingle, saving while exploring will use Layton’s. Nearly the entire soundtrack was recorded with live instrumentation, and it stands out as one of the best soundtracks on the 3DS. While Layton fans are used to some orchestration in the game, many AA fans will be hearing music remixed from its first game for the first time as something other than midi. And it’s spectacular. I’d certainly nominate this game for Recommended Soundtracks.

Verdict: Guilty… of being a varied visual novel/puzzle masterpiece.